Blog: Ein Stori Ni!

CISP Multimedia's film education project has been recognised for 'Excellence in Creative Media' at Carmarthenshire's Celebration of Culture Awards.

Over the last few months CISP Multimedia have been working with schools across South Wales to offer filmmaking opportunities for primary school children, with support from Ffilm Cymru Wales. The project provided hands-on experience of storyboarding, filming and editing their own films about topics of their choice, and concluded with a premiere of their film on the big screen at Y Ffwrnes, Llanelli.

Since the project, CISP Multimedia have gone on to be recognised in the 'Excellence in Creative Media' category at the Celebration of Culture Awards. Held at Ffwrnes in April, the Celebration of Culture recognises those individuals and groups who have made a significant contribution to arts and crafts in Carmarthenshire during 2017.

The films made by pupils from Ysgol Gymraeg Nantgaredig, Ysgol Gynradd Wirfoddol Glanyfferi, Ysgol Gynradd Penbre, Ysgol Gymunedol Trimsaran, and Ysgol Gymraeg Brynsierfel covered a vast range of subjects, including short films about their local area and quiz shows based on topics they were studying. The pupils were involved in all aspects of the project, choosing subjects, storyboarding, filming and even designing their opening title card for the film. Learning through hands-on workshops in animation, filmmaking and drama, the project provided a new way for the children to interact with learning materials while gaining new skills, increasing media literacy and building confidence.

It wasn’t just the children who learned new skills with CISP; teachers and learning support assistants were also involved to find out first-hand about the ways in which film and media can be used in the classroom, with many of them going on to use the skills such as animation and storyboarding in their everyday classes.

As the project drew to a close in February, family and friends were invited to a premier of the films at Y Ffwrnes in Llanelli. Children were asked to present their films before giving everyone the opportunity to see their work. A special mention goes to the pupils of Ysgol Penbre, an English medium Primary School that still took the opportunity to join the other schools in presenting their films in Welsh to the large audience at the screening. They had taken part in the project to not only learn new filmmaking skills but to also improve their Welsh speaking, and so it was big achievement to screen their Welsh language film alongside the other four schools.